Giants Offense Leads the Pack
Giants O
One way to tell what an NFL team thinks of another team is by personnel. Here is what I mean, defenses line up with either a 3-4 look (3 defensive linemen and 4 linebackers) or they play a 4-3 (4 defensive lineman and 3 linebackers). Well if you have been following the Giants, you know one thing is for sure, when you watch their offense, they can run the ball with power. So I plug in the tape of the Ravens D — which by the way, is one of the best in football, especially against the run — and what do I see? A 4-4 set or 5-3 set depending on how you want to treat Terrell Suggs their LB/DL. They had 4 defensive linemen and 4 linebackers on the field, and only 3 defensive backs, not the normal 4. That tells you all you need to know about how good the Giants’ offensive is and their running game, it commands that kind of respect from one of the league’s best defenses. And here is what is scary, the Giants still rushed for over 200 yards. This is not a good matchup for the Cardinals D.
Dolphins vs. Patriots Re-match
Remember the first matchup? The Dolphins dropped the wild cat formation on the Patriots and torched their defense. Well, this week on our State Farm NFL Matchup show at 7:30 Sunday morning on ESPN, I will breakdown the formation and what its purpose really is. The wild cat formation is just a different way to get to one of three runs that almost everyone runs in the NF L: 1) the strong side zone play 2) the power play, which is what I will breakdown Sunday 3) the weak side counter trap. Well the sweep motion by Ricky Williams and Ronnie Brown as the QB makes it look much more complicated than it really is, but when executed right and with the speed of the Dolphins, it can take you off guard like it did the Patriots. I expect the Patriots to be much better prepared this time. The only concern I would have for the Patriots is the Dolphins will have other wrinkles of the things they did so well the first time.
Colts O
Look out this team may be the scariest team in football. Why? Because their offensive line is mauling people. They destroyed the Texans D line. In fact, there were about a dozen times the Colts’ offensive line moved the Texans’ defensive line 3 yards off the ball, I can tell you from experience, if you get that kind of movement, running backs will have a great day and many more to come.
Falcons vs. Panthers Re-match
Matt Ryan had only been starting about a month when he played the Panthers the first time and one thing that usually takes a QB a while to use is the cadence. Young QBs have so much going through their minds that the last thing they think of is changing up the snap count and how to hold defenses. Well Carolina really used that to their advantage and timed a lot of LB run throughs to disrupt the Falcons’ run game and it worked. This time around, Matt will be much better with that and it should help them run the ball against a Panther D that has gotten better as well.
Carolina O
It’s hard to say another team runs the ball as good as the Giants, but the Panthers are very close. With Williams and Stewart and an offensive line that gets better every week, they are a close, 1A to the Giants. This team has turned its season around because of the running game and they win games because of it. As I study both Stewart and Williams, they are the second best one-two punch in football behind the Giants that technically have a one, two three punch. In fact, there are 6 teams that I feel have a great one-two punch and they in this order starting with the best: Giant, Panthers, Titans, Dolphins, Falcons and Jags.
Steeler O
Ben looked a little better this week, especially in the fourth quarter when the game got tight. And to be honest, one of the biggest factors if you’re going to be a great QB in this league, is can you make big-time throws late in the game and he did. I thought the Steelers O line played much better but one thing this team really lacks is a physical running attack! In fact, I would like to see Gary Russell get a few more carries because he brings that physicality the Steelers are missing.
Jets O vs. Titans D
I thought the Jets had about as much balance to their off ense as I have seen this year and they will need it against the Titans. But here is where I think this game comes down to: the Jets offensive left tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson against the Titans D line. Now the reason I say D line is because they will put Albert Haynesworth over there or Dave Ball, the defensive end filling in for Kyle Vanden Bosch. The Jets will be forced to help him by either putting a TE over there or by using a back at times. The problem with doing this is it hurts the formations you can run and the players you can get out, because you have to give him help. Now there will be times he will just have to get it done, you just hope he can and the Titans don’t make the defensive play on him that ends up being the difference in the game.
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